I so want my storm summoning, poison debuffing and force fielding powers back

Tempest Master here, so yeah, this will be my first set if there is Weather Control (and that DOES seem popular!).... Weather Control/Lightning Projection

InOnePiece wrote:

I'm assuming healing would be here, too?

We don't use that word here.

Answering seriously, healing is included under the Support umbrella. However, it's typically just one part of any support set. Even the healingest set, Empathy, only had 3 of its 9 powers providing direct heals.

Ratstar wrote:

My first toon will definitely be the emp defender equivalent.

Ditto.

I can't wait to see how I can re-create Magda Adair, my very first CoH character. The little healy fey-kitten was such a joy to play and RP with!

Ah, the support character, my place in every game I play. My job, and the place I best fit in, is the teammate that makes the others look good. I was my team's unfair advantage and I was good at it.

It takes a certain mindset not to be the star and, to be honest, a fair amount of skill. While anyone can figure out the basic mechanics of a melee specilaist (1,2,3,4...repeat until target is down) it's a little more challenging finding creative ways of using "defensive" powers to succeed. Don't get me wrong, playing the hitter is loads of fun, but there's nothing quite like the satisfaction of taking down a boss with confuse, or locking down the room with mass holds and then taking them apart one by one, or using your forcefields to hold the line until the heavy hitters can get into place (actually did this on TFs, I was the only functioning player and, using little more than forcefields, I held up an army of mooks while my team rezzed and got back into the fight).

Bring on the Guardian. I'll be there waiting.

Sounds a bit like the time I was playing [b]Sidhe Bang[/b], my Storm/Dual Pistols Defender, on a Task Force when the group drew way too much hatred and the main aggro magnet sank under the flood. I fell back into a choke point, dialed up the HERDicane ... and [b]planted my flag[/b]. There must have been at least 40+ mobs from multiple spawn groups all trying to batter their way to us, and although I didn't do the Arnie Quote, everyone who wanted to live took refuge within the swirling winds of my HERDicane (that debuffed To-Hit by like -45%, yielding [b]NO GET HITSU!![/b] levels of survival).

And from the center of the storm ... we fought.
And fought.
And fought.
And fought.
I cracked a joke about "cloth tanking" which would have been instantly recognizable to any World of Warcraft Player.
And fought.
And fought.
And kept right on fighting.

Finally, after a good 4+ minutes of fighting for our lives, we finally defeated the last of the stragglers ... and I was suddenly bombarded with Friend requests. Even the TANKER wanted to be on my Friends list after watching me hold off the ocean against that much aggro. They simply couldn't believe that I'd kept most of the team alive against overwhelming odds, simply by debuffing our Foes into the ground and fighting a DEFENDer battle by planting the flag. I wasn't a "bubble" Defender, but practically nothing could get through my perimeter of swirling winds without getting knocked back out.

After that little demonstration of AWESOME, I had at least half the group swearing up and down that by tomorrow they'd be starting up their own Storm/Dual Pistols Defenders ...

Referring to someone's post about ice/ice defenders. Ice/ice controllers were AMAZING. Always a welcomed addition to teams. Most enemies NPC or not, could barely move. I remember running essentially two debuff auras, between the -movemt and confusion of arctic air, combined with the stealth and defense of arctic fog. I rocked man! So, if your enemy managed to move, with the endurance drain of a power like heat loss and benumb they were essentially frozen targets.

Kin/elec fenders were a ton of fun...the speed boosts and siphoning additional damage from the baddies for your teammates. Of all my healing toons, my kin fender had the highest heal and quickest recharge, thanks to a build using Invention Enhancements. But def had to have high Accuracy (or pop some large yellow Insp.'s) for the heal to hit, and team had to be in close...worked best with a group of melee teammates. It felt like we were a steam rolling machine.

I didn't see much advantage with the elec 2ndary. When stealing the endurance from the baddies, even if managing to get their blue down to nothing, they were still able to attack, lol. But the power set was still fun to throw in there between the kin powers recharging. Was great for character concepts too.

But I def hope to see some fun and unique ways to guard(ian) or defend(er) our teammates. Loved the heals, bubbles, buff, and debuffs. But also loved the speed boosts, siphons, repels, etc...maybe even almost controlling powers, but designed and used in a defensive way. Either way, it's going to be great to see what they come out with for the Guardians. Can't Wait!!!